Field Test(s) with Passive Vertical Beach Drainage

This story is about a large field test in Denmark and all its implications to convince the inventor and decision makers (the politicians), that a proposed new coastal protection system would not work. It’s a typical example on fact doesn’t matter (also well known in the world of politics). The new system in question is a passive beach drain composed of a number of vertical tubes, hollow, but with slots, and blocked for flow at the bottom (Figure 1). The main focus here is on the large field test in Denmark 2005-2008. However, because this test is one amongst others, a few other tests are also briefly mentioned here to demonstrate how an inventor can play around with scientists and convince the public and decision makers about its functionality for many years, as well as receive generous public funding for the repeated testing. The functioning of something that works is usually easy to explain, however, the field tests illustrate how difficult it is to disprove something that does not work.